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tv   Morning Joe  MSNBC  March 19, 2013 3:00am-6:00am PDT

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. good morning. you're looking at live pictures from the vatican. where pope francis is being formally installed as the new pontiff of the catholic church. representatives of 132 countries, including a u.s. delegation led by vice president joe biden were onhand for the ceremony. pope francis has projected himself with humility over the past few days taking time to personally greet the faithful in the crowds. and welcome to "morning
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joe," tuesday, march 19th. with us onset, we have senior political analyst mark haleprin. we've got the president in the council of foreign relations richard haass and former democratic congressman harold ford jr. >> what's going on? >> oh, we have more. >> i know. >> i saved the best for last. >> thanks a lot, mika. >> and what is richard haass? >> and we've got david ignatius coming up, as well. >> fantastic. >> yes, it is fantastic. >> all right. what do we have in news? >> hi, harold, how are you doing? what's going on? >> oh, really? >> who are you picking in march madness? >> it hurts me to say this because i'm a michigan man, but ohio state is playing extraordinarily well. i've got michigan state. >> do we have a story on cypress? or can i make chitchat with
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haass. >> if you have a few more, thad be good. >> what about cypress, richard haass, isn't that something? >> it is astrange approach to economic policy. turns out, it's the willie sutton approach to dealing with the european economic crisis. one of the few places they have any resources. anything that approaches the scale of what they need. and it makes no sense and it's not going to last. >> very good. >> this is interesting. fresh poll numbers out from cnn opinion research showing there is very little support for leaders in washington. to boast about right now. 47% of americans approve of the job that president obama is doing compared to 50% who disapprove. his net approval rating has dropped 15 percentage points since january. now, despite his recent outreach to republicans, 56% believe the president's not doing enough to cooperate with a full 70% thinking the gop is not reaching out. that matches an all-time high.
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as far as the budget goes, only 31% say they approve of how the president is handling how government raises and spends money. >> wow. >> just 19% support the way congressional republicans are dealing with it. and it was nearly split. 47% sided with the president, 46% sided with republicans, and i wonder, joe, if this is at least inspiration enough for them to just get a deal. is anyone going to get worse than this? really? why can't they at least get something done. i think politically the pressure is more on the president for this reason. you go -- you ask somebody -- it's kind of like lawyers. i found that everybody hated lawyers, right? >> yep. everybody loves their own lawyer. you should have seen what she did in court. man, let me give you my lawyer's number. it's the same thing with congressmen. everybody hates congressmen, but hey, my guy, my woman, they go
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up there and boy they fight. so, again, you've got to put yourself in the position of a congressman looking at 31% approval rating going, yeah, that's fine. i'm saying that 74%, the words of dire straits, you know, i got a daytime job, i'm doing all right. i think the pressure when you look at these numbers are a little more on the president. because this is a president who wants a legacy, thinks he deserves a legacy. but it's horrible for republicans, as well. they're facing the prospects with these numbers of not controlling the house h. >> that's my point. >> a year and a half from now. so it's a curse in both of their houses. >> i think you said legacy, if he does not get stuff done in 2013, it's hard to see momentum, at least in domestic policy getting done after that. >> unless they take over the house. >> it's hard to see them taking back the house unless they have some success in the next few months. i think they've done a great job in teeing things up. i think they've moved along on
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guns, immigration a lot. they've moved along on some of the budget stuff. but now he's got to perform. and i think republicans have a choice. will they give the president a major deficit reduction victory or not? if they really believe that needs to be done and the president put something on the table that gets them significant entitlement reform and savings, i think they've got to do it. >> harold, i think the possibility of deals and immigration, possibility of deals on guns, possibility of deals on the budget, on the long-term debt, i think the possibilities are actually -- excuse me for being optimistic, pretty darn good on all fronts. you've got republicans who daily are holding press conferences wringing their hands trying to figure out how to save their party. and you have a president who, again, he's a 47%, pretty damn good considering everything. but still, he wants to be over 50% and he wants a legacy. he doesn't want to just talk about what he did the first two years. >> i agree. i believe the prospects for
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progress on both immigration and gun control are gun regulation. if we get progress on the budget and the debt. i think immigration and gun regulations are easier to win. if the economy hobbles along and don't get me wrong, the markets are roaring, we've had a few days where it has slowed just a bit. but the average american, the pedestrian middle class family how well are they doing? how confident are they? and if the economy slows for them, the prospects for immigration reform, i don't believe are nearly as high, if you don't get what mark has been saying now for over two weeks. the sequencing done right on this cut spending cuts and tax reform. things sound great and they're moving along now. but joe, as we talked about earlier, you're going to have reticent democrats. and even key congressional races who are going to slow down a bit and saying, look, i want immigration and guns dealt with, what are we doing about the economy and the budget, the
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debt, and tax reform? >> and this is, richard haas, you can only push people so far, i mean, not the republicans' best friend. this weekend said democrats you're about to lose me. i pay 40% federal, 15%. well, i hear we have it cued up. let's go. this is bill maher this weekend. >> -- actually do pay the freight in this country. i just saw the statistics, something like 70%. and here in california, i'm just going to say, liberals, you could actually lose me. it's outrageous what we're paying. over -- i'm willing to pay my share, but yeah, it's ridiculous. >> and not only that -- >> wow. >> people like bill maher pay 55% in california, people in new york pay over 50%. in new jersey, why is a republican sitting at 70% plus
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approval rating? you can only -- and economists, liberal economists write about this, you can only tax people so much. and then on top of that, for democrats to go around saying when bill maher is paying 55% in taxes, you know what, but the rich aren't paying their fair share. we need more. both sides have got to figure out how they come to the table. and moderate. >> absolutely. and you know, after the $600 billion tax increase on top of what the rates increases, on top of state and local taxes, the cumulative package for most people in high-end brackets -- high income is well above 50%. i think essentially we're done with the tax part of this, possibly other than closing a so-called -- so-called tax expenditures, maybe reducing things like mortgage deductions and charitable donations for wealthy people. also, it argues again, you've got to start talking about growth. whichever side gets serious about growth. and there's one or two positive things on that, i would say. one is the energy transformation.
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the other is after the first term where the president never did anything serious about trade, right now, we are on the verge of starting -- well, one started the other. we're going to start two major trade negotiations. one the transpacific negotiation. and the others we're going to start a u.s./european negotiation. this involves something like 60%, 70% of the world's economies. this is potentially a major engine if we can actually get serious about trade. that would help a lot and help compensate for some of the drag that's been introduced by the sequester in some of the other budget cuts. >> the paradigm around this conversation has been so narrow. it's either been tax increases, spending cuts, to haas' point, might not immediately approve it. it might be more environmentally dangerous transporting it by freight and by ship to approve that natural gas exports. the energy department has said we'll not have negative impact on u.s. manufacturing growth, particularly in the middle of the country. do it now.
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and finally, stop talking only about it in these terms. the country's growing in many ways. and if we trade another prime example. if we were to do those things, it would change the psyche in congress, get people more courage and get us closer to doing things you've written about over the years. we want to mark another important anniversary. and officials say, it has news to go with it. at least 56 people were killed this morning in explosions across iraq. that's exactly ten years after then president bush announced the u.s. invasion. most of today's attacks were car bombings around baghdad, including one near major government offices and foreign embassies. we're still getting information in on that in terms of casualties and injuries. elizabeth, you first, ten years later, where are we? well, it's a very difficult anniversary.
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no one remembers this fondly at all. the iraqis certainly don't remember this well. they're not marking this anniversary at all. i also think that the war changed fundamentally the way the united states thinks about war. look at how reluctant the president is right now to intervene in syria in a serious way. look at how reluctant the pentagon was to go to war to intervene in libya. look at how long the afghanistan wars lasted because of what happened in iraq. we're in a very sober place right now. also, we have to remember, nearly 5,000 american men and women killed in uniform killed as a result of this war. i should also -- i should also tell you, i am at this point, i just wanted to say, i'm no longer the pentagon correspondent, but i certainly have covered both of these wars. i'm the deputy washington bureau chief just so you know that. i wanted to make one correction. >> first of all, can i say congratulations on a much deserved promotion if that, in fact, is a promotion.
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having to deal with all of those people at one time. i might want to be across the river a little bit. david ignatius, you know, the argument the generals are always fighting the last war despite having ten years of hell behind us, this doesn't help us as we look at the threats moving forward with iran. do we learn the wrong lessons? are we too reticent to act in iran as elizabeth said. 70,000 dead in syria. do we learn the wrong lessons from iraq? >> well, i don't think so in this sense, joe. i think the united states discovered in iraq so painfully that when you knock the blocks out from under an authoritarian regime, what flows from that isn't -- flows into that space
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isn't democracy, self-governance, the kind of celebratory things that americans had hoped for. but a reversion. loyalties of sect, of tribe, of region. so iraq, in a sense, was thrown back into the past by our invasion, not in the future. >> david, can i ask you an uncomfortable questions? because it's a question that i woke up thinking about today. ten years later, are iraqis worse off today than they were ten years ago. would they have been better off with saddam hussein ruling today? >> saddam really was a monster. so i would never wish any people to be governed under him in the future. but -- >> right. >> but iraqis are in the stream of their development as a modern country. they sure aren't happy with us. as you look at this story, you'd have to say that the great beneficiaries of our invasion
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were iraq were the iranians. we knocked down sunni power in iraq, something the iranians had been trying to do in the iraq/iran war and failed. and we achieved it. iran is much more powerful in the region. has a kind of -- i think one things americans can hold on to with pride is after what most people certainly i would agree was a mistake in invading iraq in 2003, we did stay the course long enough to restabilize the country. that was a courageous decision by president bush. he made the bad decision to go in, but he stayed there on the ground. and he was aided fantastically by his general on the ground, general petraeus. whatever happened later in general petraeus' career doesn't change that. and you can count the tens of thousands of iraqis alive today because the country didn't keep zooming off towards civil war the way it was heading when
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petraeus came in. >> you know, richard engel a couple of years ago, i asked him what was going on in iraq and asked him what they thought about george w. bush. and he said not much. not much. but they would put statues of david petraeus up on every square if they had a chance. >> well, richard haas, we have this from daniel dunby. who writes in part, turkey is the economic winner of the iraq war. the americans won the war, the iranians won the peace and the turks won the contracts. with iraq's kurdish region seeking to reduce the dependence on baghdad, the relationship with turkey may soon move to another level. tensions are increasing over turkey's plans to invest in the northern iraqi energy sector. maliki said such an agreement would be unconstitutional. so, look at the winners and losers overall. and looking back, i mean, how do we assess our decisions?
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and some of them were so flawed anyway. >> history, i think, is going to be somewhere between critical and brutal of what we decided to do as well as how we did it. to use the language i introduced, this was a war of choice. it was ill-advised and poorly implemented. and at the end of the day, david's right, iran is the strategic beneficiary. the iraqi people, yes saddam hussein is gone, iraqi oil production is up, but violence is the staple of iran. and it reinforced -- united states is the big loser, united states i would say. and it's the 4,400 americans who died, it's more than 30,000 american casualties, the direct immediate cost of the war were well over $1 trillion. on top of that now, we have decades of health care costs and veterans costs, we have all the lost productivity of these human beings. if you add it all up, it's probably $2 trillion to $3 trillion of american costs, distorted american foreign policy. the idea that we took so much of
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our situation after the end of the cold war and we devoted it to iraq given everything else we could've, should've done. historians will scratch their head and say why did the united states get so distracted and distorted -- >> and stayed there after we knew there weren't weapons. >> and that's the big lesson we should draw from this in afghanistan. we've got to respect local realities. united states cannot go around the middle east and remake it in our liking. we've got to have a degree of humility about the limits of our influence. and you asked whether we learned the lessons. with vietnam, iraq and afghanistan, i hope we've learnlearn ed. >> and iraq and afghanistan. first of all, be far, far more skeptical than most of us were going in to iraq. also, no matter how far you are down the path, if it's the wrong path, turn around. and we should've done that. i want to read what you talked about the human cost.
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mike barnicle e-mailed me this last night. we were e-mailing back and forth about the iraq war. and he said there's not a lot of conversation about the composition of the army and marine corps with regard to iraq. both were volunteer units and a majority of those who served were older than drafted for vietnam. most were married, more had children left at home. so there have been more divorces, more orphans, more widows than any war since world war ii. there have been advances of emergency medicine and field hospitals. and as a result, more walking wounded now home in america. the cost of the war in iraq apart from the obvious k.i.a. is multigenerational. we are as a nation going to be paying for this for six or seven decades. elizabeth, this -- this is a war whose consequences are going to stay with us for a very long time. >> that's right. and post traumatic stress
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syndrome and in the cost of health care, which we now know is exploding at the pentagon. if costs continue, the pentagon will be, you know, health care provider that occasionally kills a terrorist as one former general once said to me. but i also think on a slightly positive note that it did really promote the american military in a way that hasn't occurred before. the program started with the invasion of iraq in march of 2003 with journalists embedding with the troops that were invading. and the american military is more popular than ever as a result of its performance in the iraq war. and now no one, even if you don't agree with the war, which most americans now don't, the, you know, the performance of the military has been very highly regarded. and so i think that was, you know, and the military is very proud of the role it played in
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that war. despite, you know, the decisions to go there. >> well, we're going to be stepping back into this conversation on this anniversary a few times in the show. one more story before we get to break. and if any of you say that it won't take generations to solve this problem, as well, that affects our national security, i suggest you just zip it. mayor mike bloomberg is taking on a new fight for public health. and this time he's prosing legislation to put tobacco products out of sight. the proposal would force stores to keep cigarettes hidden in cabinets under the counter or behind curtains. not surprisingly, tobacco companies are blasting the idea and the state's convenience store association calls the proposed ban absurd. now, this follows the mayor's effort to crack down on large sugary sodas. a proposal that was blocked last week by a judge. and the point here is he was trying to just as he did with the large cups, he's trying to change the behavior and the way
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people think when they walk through stores. and try and get the way their behavior changes to impact their diet. and it actually does work. and even though the soda ban did not happen, there is a change in the way people are ingesting these sodas. and by the way, i have a little thing to show you what happens to your body when you drink a coke. we'll go through it. it's a ten-step process. >> there's a threat on all these things, whether it's the sugary drinks, which he's got a little bit of criticism for, but i think he's right on, the tobacco products. what mike bloomberg is doing is changing the debate in this country, not just about lifestyle, but this whole family of what's noncommunicable diseases. the biggest drivers of health care costs in america. the biggest threat to our house. it's not infectious disease anymore, it's these lifestyle disease. diseases, if you will, of choice. we can do something about them. this might be mike bloomberg's biggest legacy. and this is health care is 18%,
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18% of our gdp. this is getting at the 18% of our gdp. if we're going to be competitive, this is the sort of stuff we're going to deal with. >> what's that. >> here's the challenge, i think at some point you have to ask the question, if we're going to ban this stuff, we should just ban it. and taking it out -- i said i support what the mayor's doing, the sugary drinks. support in limiting tobacco. people not smoking in restaurants. but the question becomes, do you not take potato chips and sodas and ice cream and move that to the back -- i don't know when -- >> we're going to have potato chip peep shows soon. behind curtains. okay. >> no, no, no -- i'm not sure what the good option is. but i made a point of bringing this up along the same lines of talking about iraq, if you don't think the obesity crisis is not killing us -- >> be very careful. >> diabetes -- >> i happen to agree with you, but -- >> knee replacements,
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everything. we are extremely ill. i appreciate what this man is trying to do. >> that i do too. >> in light of the fact there are very greedy industries that refuse to face the fact they're not being honest with the american people. >> you have to be a certain age to buy them. there's legitimacy there. it's a slope we get on here. >> good slope. >> sorry about that. >> we've got to write that down. >> we're batting .500, elizabeth, 1 for 2, that ain't bad in baseball. >> hall of fame. coming up on "morning joe," more on the ten-year anniversary of the invasion of iraq. with the "washington post" bob woodward and paul rieckhoff. also kelly o'donnell. today is the primary and the special house seat election there with mark sanford in the field.
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up next, the top stories in the politico playbook. but first, bill karins with a check on the winter storm. as advertised, it's an ugly morning in new england. school delays and cancellations, especially up toward massachusetts, vermont, new hampshire and up here into maine. the temperatures tell the story of how the roads are this morning as you head out. as you look at the freezing line, it's right in here now, it's moving up to northern connecticut and just south of boston. south of that line through rhode island and connecticut, it's slushy, passable, the roads are improving. we are plenty cold north of there, and that's where the snow is coming down and that's where the travel is by far the worst. the white on this map shows you the snow, the blue and white inside of the snow. and there's even some pretty good snow moving up through upstate new york. you get the picture, it's pretty much the mass pike north wards is where the worst of the travel's going to be through this morning. we've already picked up about 3 to 4 inches right around boston. we're only going to get another
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inch or two in boston. mostly see the totals going higher, vermont, new hampshire, and maine and the mountainous areas could pick up a foot to foot and a half. areas like hartford and new york city, the worst is over with. the roads will improve dramatically during the day today, we're okay in d.c., the other horrible stuff, look at the temperatures, the windchill is 1 right now in chicago. this march has been relentless. feels like winter in the northern half of the country. and i'm sorry to say, it's not going to change for at least the next week. new york city, picked up about an inch of snow and slush last night. now it's just been raining. and the worst of it is over for you. it is windy. look at that camera shake. you're watching "morning joe" approved by starbucks. mallon brothers magic? watch this -- alakazam! ♪ [ male announcer ] staples has always made getting office supplies easy. ♪ another laptop? don't ask. disappear!
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♪ we have to read the papers or can we just listen to this song? time to take a look at the morning papers. the "wall street journal" according to a new survey, 57% of u.s. workers have less than
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$25,000 put away for retirement savings. contributing factors include the financial crisis and the fact that americans are living longer than ever before. the survey -- don't tell paul krugman that. he gets very angry when you tell him that. 28% of americans have no confidence they're going to have enough money to retire. that's the highest rate in 23 years. >> the "new york times" revealing all truths, sleep researchers from the university of colorado have found losing a few hours of sleep on consecutive nights can lead to almost immediate weight gain. >> there you go. that explains -- overall sleep deprived eaters ended up taking in 6% more calories than those who got a good night's rest. mostly associated with after-dinner snacking. >> busted. "usa today," american and delta are adding seats to several of their cross-country flights. the new cabins on united's flights include 28 flat bed
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seats and other premium offers including wi-fi, in seat power, usb hubs and on-demand entertainment. i may fly around all the time. >> nap -- expensive napping. "washington post," house and senate members have been warned this year's easter egg roll could be canceled. white house official confirmed the note went out to all ticketholders. not just those who work on capitol hill. each family receives five tickets to the fabled -- >> this is such a terrible, terrible move on the white house's part. they think they're being cute here. there are so many ways this is going to blow up in their face. mark mckinnon wrote an article a couple of days ago talking about, okay, so now kids can't come visit the white house. but the rich can. basically the white house is open only to the rich. this is the sort of mistake republicans usually make where we make a decision and don't
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think one or two steps ahead. i'm telling you, they're going to have government officials on g5 jets or other things going on. and now -- they're going to cancel this. they've already lost the pr battle with the sequester. who are they trying to -- >> i'm surprised at this because you had that saturday radio address by the president that basically said the plagues were going to descend upon the nation and pulled back from that. this seems like someone didn't get the -- >> the easter egg roll will occur i'm here to predict. >> with faberge eggs. >> they need to stop doing this. they need to let kids back into the white house. you know, what do we spend? how much a year? $40 trillion a year in our budget, $4 trillion a year on our budget, $4.53 trillion, i think, they can figure out a way to let students from across america on spring break take tours of the white house. and this is -- they're only hurting themselves. if they want to do this, they're setting themselves up for failure. >> and i imagine if they really
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wanted to get money for it, i would expect volunteers would cough up the money. >> well, exactly, this is a terrible mistake. and they need to let kids into the white house on their tours. let's go to politico's playbook with executive editor jim vandehei. jim, don't you agree? come on, figure out to get the money to let kids have tours and easter egg rolls. >> they could do it byoe. bring your own egg. a middle ground, compromise for washington, they'll have the event, but you have to hard boil your own egg and paint it before you get there. >> well, maybe so. yesterday, senator feinstein said the assault weapons ban is not going to be part of the bill. that's something you've been predicting for a while. i've been talking about for a couple weeks now. what are the chances we see it as added as an amendment possibly down the road. >> there's no doubt there'll be efforts to add it, i think this is the official death of the assault weapons ban. it's harry reid conceding it can't be part of the main bill. they're trying to focus on what
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is doable. what can they get done in april? and what they think can get done would be universal background checks, including for private transactions. if i was going to sell you a gun that doesn't have to be any sort of background check on that under a bill being knocked around in the senate, you would have to have some validation there before that purchase could be made. and that's the sticking point right now. that's a far cry from what democrats were talking about two or three months ago. that's a pretty small, narrow provision in the scope of all the big gun controls that democrats wanted to push in the beginning. >> that said, david, ignatius, if a bill passes that even allows the individual transfer without background checks, that would close the gun loophole, also stop something that needs to be stopped, and that is the purchasing of weapons online. that's a significant -- >> for gun control folks. it would just be a shame from my standpoint if in the aftermath
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of the newtown tragedy the country through the congress couldn't get it together to pass some sort of legislation. i would be shocked by that. >> i think so. jim vandehei, though, i talked to gun control advocates who say, yes, we would love to have the assault weapon ban and be able to ban these high-capacity magazines that the newtown shooter used. but i said at the end of the day, if you want to stop more gun deaths, the best way to do it is universal background checks and really tough gun trafficking laws. >> in trying to get anything. i mean, what democrats are trying to do right now, they're looking at a tom coburn, mark kirk, looking at republicans that might sign on to a bill in the senate. even if they can get that accomplished, it comes to every week on the show, it's still not clear you can get any of this stuff through the house. there's not any house republican out there clambering for, hey, let's do universal background checks. they don't want to do anything.
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you get background checks through the senate and dies in the house just like it'd be possible you could get a bragra bargain in the senate. i think it's possible you get an immigration deal and it dies in the house. i don't think any of these are a fo forgone conclusion. to make significant movement on these issues. i'd say immigration's in a different category. i do think the politics, that rnc report last night, rand paul speech last night are moving in a direction where republicans probably have to compromise. i don't know that necessarily means they do compromise. >> that said, though, if you have a universal background check that excludes individual purchases and something like that gets 70, 75, 80 votes in the united states senate, which it could, that changes things in the house and, you know what, there is a possibility that if you have that type of bill, you could actually have a bill that the nra doesn't score. if it excludes the individual, the individual checks, maybe the
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nra doesn't score that, and suddenly you close the gun loophole and the online loophole with these universal background checks. we shall see. thank you so much. as always, the voice of optimism of sunny optimism from oshkosh, wisconsin. coming up, mika's must-read opinion pages coming up next. more "morning joe" in a minute. ♪
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live look at the capitol. the sun has yet to come up over washington, but you need to wake up and get to work. all right. we'll start with the "new york times." the progressive shift written by david brooks. and he says this, liberalism seems to have changed. today, many progressives seem to believe that government is the source of growth. capitalism is just a feeding trough that government can use to fuel its expansion. the progressive budget in the house seems to have been written by people hermetically sealed. they work in government, they represent public sector workers, they seem to have had little contact with private sector job creators and no idea about what factors might play into their
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thinking. it's a reminder that while republicans may embarrass on a daily basis -- >> yes, we do. >> many progressives have lost touch with what actually produces growth and prosperity. >> yes, they have. >> he writes a lot of good things. he's on point. >> that's a great point. >> everyone -- >> i talk about my party who has been captured by extreme voices that don't represent the majority of the party. there is an extreme element now in the democratic party that actually gives me hope as a republican, an extreme element, i'll just say it, it starts with paul krugman. you have nancy pelosi saying we don't have a spending problem. i love nancy, i really do, but she says we don't have a spending problem. we've got democrats now who read bloggers and then pair it wipar what the bloggers say saying with don't have to worry about deficits, we don't have to worry
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about the debt. and now they have become such extremists, they're saying we don't have to worry about medicare. we don't have to worry about medicaid. we can worry about that later. they sound so extreme and so out of touch that they are doing what may republican party did when they were successful, lurch too far one direction and losing the middle of america. i'm more hopeful for the republican party today than i have been for over a decade because this extreme economic element is driving the democratic party far, far away from middle america. and it's the republicans who are going to benefit. whether they deserve it or not. >> look, combine what you've just said with what bill maher said about filling -- some democrats believing they're being overtaxed and you have a recipe. but i come back to the republicans on guns, the republicans on women's issues, the republicans on immigration, the republicans on same-sex marriage, puts them outside the mainstream with those 35 and
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under which frankly is the growing demographic. and the only reason, i believe, the democrats continue -- the big reasons why democrats continue to enjoy such strength. >> and here's the problem, i actually think if the republicans get their act together, david ignatius on some of these issues that make them sound so extreme, your young voters who are actually putting you at a disadvantage right now actually helps you in the long run because it's people in their 20s and 30s that are going to be paying in the future for the sins of this congress and this president and set of leaders in washington. >> republicans could find a way to reach out to the young voter if they started being the old man's party. as said yesterday in a devastating critique of the party's mistakes, they'd be in better shape. on a question you were talking about a minute ago, joe. i think if president obama could be the leader of his own party could take the party back away from some of these more left
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progressive voices. take it away from nancy pelosi. it's not her party, it's barack obama's party. he has -- that's the chance of his second term is it'll govern by leading his own party. and in that case, i would think that the chance of getting the kinds of things you would think are good policy, good policy outcomes would be much better than if the republicans rehabilitated themselves and felt more confident in blocking legislation, which is what they do. >> we've got to go, but mark haleprin, you wanted to join -- >> just rand paul, there's focus on his foreign policy positions. rand paul's popularity with young people is something. you saw it in cpac where the voters are younger voters. he is as a charismatic leader and as someone today coming out with a new position on immigration, i think he's part of, maybe not as a personality, but h-- >> you talk about bill maher talking about 55% real tax rate,
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right, that's going to have an impact because that's the world that 20-year-olds are going to be facing 20 years from now if we don't start making responsible decisions in washington. >> absolutely, but you've got both parties, particularly congressional parties in the end zones and the real question, who is going to occupy the middle of the field. could be the president, the governors, why so many people are alienated from the system and are independents. that's got to change. >> thank you very much for being on the show this morning. >> thanks, mika. coming up next, we'll run through our march madness picks, harold ford will deny his michigan roots. >> what? >> painfully. >> go away. [ kitt ] you know what's impressive?
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19th. doesn't it feel like march 19th in new york? >> not really. >> it's 20 degrees and there's sludge on the ground. snowstorm. my -- my kids off school again today. just miserable. all right. coming up on "morning joe." >> i miss florida so bad. i want to go home. i want to go home. >> john barrasso will be here. >> can i click my sandals together and go back? >> also bob woodward will join the conversation. up next, our march madness picks. morning, brian! love your passat! um. listen, gary. i bought the last one. nice try. says right here you can get one for $199 a month. you can't believe the lame-stream media, gary. they're all gone. maybe i'll get one. [ male announcer ] now everyone's going to want one. you can't have the same car as me, gary! i'm gettin' one. nope!
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okay. brackets now, harold, who do you have in your final four? >> i've got michigan state. i've got ohio state. >> that has to hurt you. >> it hurts me bad. michigan and miami. three big ten. i think the big ten was strong this year. and i've got ohio state winning it all which pains me in ways you don't understand because i'm a michigan -- to have michigan losing to ohio state in the finals. i hope to be wrong, but i have ohio state beating michigan. >> i've got louisville winning. >> louisville. >> yeah. me too. >> richard you too? >> also louisville. i have georgetown in the final
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four. >> do you really? i've got ohio state playing florida and atlanta like they did back in, what, what year was that? >> eight years ago. >> eight years ago. >> six years ago. >> and i've got florida winning. why? because i'm a gator. that's why. and i think they can do it. i think they can do it. really quickly, we were just talking and i know we've got to go, but i saw the showtime documentary on dick cheney, ten years later, a remarkable documentary because you know what, the man said i did what i did to stop another attack. and i'd do it again. it was one of the more remarkable documentaries i've seen. >> it is riveting. it is -- it's oral history at its best. and he is -- it's calm, it's unapologetic, and he lays out his case and whether you agree with him or not, it is powerful stuff. >> it is so powerful. if you haven't had a chance to watch it on showtime, please do so. whether you're a fan of the vice president or dislike him immensely, you're going to walk
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away like richard said absolutely riveted. coming up next on this ten-year anniversary of the iraq invasion, an all-star panel. the "washington post" bob woodward, paul rieckhoff. also two men that spent time in iraq's green zone. [ female announcer ] yoplait greek 100. 100% greek. 100% mmm... wow, that is mmm... it's so mmm you might not believe it's a hundred calories. yoplait greek 100. it is so good. a regular guy with an irregular heartbeat. the usual, bob? not today. [ male announcer ] bob has afib: atrial fibrillation not caused by a heart valve problem, a condition that puts him at greater risk for a stroke.
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welcome back to "morning joe." look at the white house as the sun just tries to come up over washington. time to get out of bed, everybody. this morning, officials say at least 56 people were killed in explosions across iraq. today, we are looking back at the war in iraq, ten years after the u.s. invasion. one of the longest conflicts in american history, more than 4,400 u.s. service members would be killed. it would also claim the lives of 134,000 iraqi civilians. in all, the war would end up costing the u.s. $2.2 trillion. my fellow citizens, at this hour, american and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm iraq, free its people, and to defend the world from grave danger.
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>> reporter: ten years ago today, president george w. bush declared the start of military operations in iraq. the goal, to disarm the nation of weapons of mass destruction and liberate the iraqi people from saddam hussein's regime. operation iraqi freedom began with an aerial bombardment known as shock and awe. less than a month later, coalition troops had made their way to the streets of baghdad and saddam hussein in hiding since the start of the war was no longer in charge of his country. >> major combat operations have ended, the united states and our allies have prevailed. >> reporter: but, winning the peace would prove a much different story.
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>> 3,709 iraqi civilians were killed last month. that makes october the deadliest month of the war. >> suicide car bomb killed at least 14 people outside iraq's interior ministry. >> the bomb has ripped through united nations headquarters in baghdad. >> at least 12 iraqis were dead after a huge explosion outside the jordanian embassy. >> reporter: and so proud purple stained fingers from iraq's first ever free elections were overshadowed by anguished bloodstained hands from a seemingly endless onslaught of i.e.d. attacks. the new strategy from washington would become known simply as "the surge." >> i've committed additional troops to iraq. >> reporter: under the command of general david petraeus, the infusion of more forces coupled with the so-called sunni awakening at last helped stabilize the violence. and in december of 2011, nearly nine years after the initial
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days of shock and awe, the last u.s. combat troops left the country. >> it's a great day not just for me, but for everybody. all the sacrifices the united states made. >> it was a privilege to be part of it. >> and joining us now this morning, we have once again of course the president on the council of foreign relations, richard haass, associate editor of the washington post the author of "imperial life inside the emerald city." also with us editor of "time international" bobby ghosh and in washington, associate editor of the washington post bob woodward, the author of "plan of attack" the definitive account of the decision to invade iraq. also joining us, national investigative correspondent
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michae michael issokoff. and paul rieckhoff. >> we've got to move around quickly. >> take it around the table. >> you were the director of policy planning at the state department. i'm going to talk to bob about this in a second. one of the most shocking things i heard ten years later was that george w. bush never asked your boss colin powell whether he thought it was a good idea to go into iraq or not, the man who had fought the same war a decade earlier against the same dictator. and you said there was never a discussion. >> they had conversations individually, but there never was a planned systematic meeting were all the principals were gathered around the table, the pros and cons of whether to go to war, what would likely be the aftermath. none of this done in any formal way and you need that kind of formal decision making in
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government. one of the reasons that historians will wonder about this. how the united states can embark on something of such magnitude in such a casual way. >> and bob woodward, the stunning response you got from president george w. bush when you asked him why he never spoke to colin powell to get his opinion was. >> not only powell, but rumsfeld who was the defense secretary, he never asked rumsfeld or powell for sort of their bottom line recommendations. so i asked president bush why. why didn't you ask them? the true experts on war in iran and iraq. and he said, i know what they thought. now, as richard haass points out, how do you find out what somebody really thinks? you call them in and you sit them down and say this is -- they never had that discussion. the discussion, for instance, with powell was bush and powell and bush saying i've decided to go to war and this was in couple of months before the war started
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and powell was quite surprised to say the least. >> to say the least. seems to me, mika, the first people you want to go to before you make a huge decision like this are the people who disagree with you. >> well, yes. usually you do. look, i think there are some clear questions as to what happened before we even got there. and now ten years later, we look at the ramifications of what we've done there. and if it necessarily was in terms of keeping the balance and the entire region in an area that is safe for us. i'm not sure we've actually done that. rajiv, you're the author of "imperial life in the emerald city" inside iraq's green zone. describe what that was like, first of all, and what has been left behind. >> it was a surreal world we set up in the heart of baghdad from where we made a series of fateful mistakes that would propel the country into the
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insurgency that engulfed it. the civil war, and really set us back. we spent so much time talking about the flawed intelligence and the wmd. but the mistakes we made when we got to baghdad, telling many mid-level members of saddam's party who had no blood on their hands, you have to future in iraq. and we sent a 24-year-old kid with no background in finance to reopen baghdad's stock exchange. to do important work. and those mistakes that we made in that first year when it was under occupation really, we squandered the window of opportunity we had. >> how does that happen? >> it happens because the bush administration was convinced this would be a cake walk. and so instead of looking around for the best and the brightest under our country, people with nation building experience, people with background in the middle east, language skills, the white house and the pentagon, instead, went and
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chose largely the loyal and willing. children of donors and others because they thought this would be a great resume building exercise. they get there, the insurgency kicks off because of mistakes they make in part and by the fall of 2003, six months after we get there. they find themselves in completely over their heads. >> bobby, you write a compelling article suggesting that saddam hussein would've survived the arab spring. >> i think so. to many iraqis, the invasion itself is not the question. it was the mistakes made afterwards. to the extent that iraqis are talking about the -- what iraqis are talking about today is what happened afterwards. and there is a question now in the past couple of years in people's minds. well, if the americans hadn't come at all, would we have been able to get rid of saddam hussein the way the egyptians got rid of mubarak and so on?
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he was more brutal with his own people than hosni mubarak. he had already crushed and killed tens of thousands of his people. in the south among the shia. so a peaceful protest would not have worked in iraq. >> there was an amazing part of the tower. remarkable book where saddam hussein is talking to a leader of saudi arabia and asked what he did to put down popular unrest. saddam just shook his head and he's like no, no, no -- that's not how you do it. seems whether you talk about mubarak or the leaders in saudi arabia or across the middle east they -- there's some brutal leaders in that region. but they were in the minor leagues compared to saddam hussein. >> yeah, he killed far more of his people than almost any other dictator in the arab world. >> yeah. so, michael isikoff, ten years
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later, hindsight is 20/20, at the time, though, you look at the polls out at the time we went to war. you look at what the "new york times" was writing, what the washington post was writing calling this on the eve of george w. bush's inauguration the greatest threat to america, saddam hussein and his weapons of mass destruction. you look at the fact that 72% of americans supported going to war in march of 2003. and you wonder how many of us could've gotten so much wrong. >> well, it's because of the false claims made about the threat that iraq posed. i think at the end of the day, that's going to be what history remembers the most. and that's what we're going to look back on. >> well, michael if i could talk about, though, the false claims by whom because it certainly wasn't just george w. bush. again, as bob woodward reports, you've got the cia director jumping up and down in the
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office waving his arms and he says, mr. president, it's a slam dunk. now, let me tell you, michael, if i'm commander in chief and it's a year and a half after 9/11 and my cia director if you don't mind me making this point for a second, this isn't directed at you, this is an ongoing question, i think we all have to ask, a year and a half after iraq, your cia director who works 24 hours a day going through intel who missed a big one a year and a half before tells you, mr. president, it's a slam dunk, saddam hussein has weapons of mass destruction, seems to me this is a blame that is shared by many in washington, isn't it? >> it's certainly a blame that's shared by many. but if you're the commander in chief, joe, i hope you would have perhaps read the national intelligence estimate, which was riddled with descents within that department of energy. experts saying the principal
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basis for the claim that iraq had a nuclear weapons program, the aluminum tubes were completely flawed and, in fact, those tubes had nothing to do with nuclear centrifuges. you would have read the dissents that came from the air force saying that the unmanned aircraft were not about delivering chemical and biological weapons. you would have red the dad the s from the state department saying the uranium claim that was made by the state of the union was highly dubious and likely based on a forgery. >> we could all go back ten years and i'm not going george bush's bidding in the least here, but wasn't the preponderance of the evidence coming from the cia, coming from our intel community, coming from intel communities across the globe that saddam hussein had weapons of mass destruction? and yes, there's no doubt you can look at the estimates, you
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can go through, you can find it everywhere. but wasn't the preponderance of the evidence among democratic supporters that supported this war and the white house that saddam hussein had weapons of mass destruction. >> there was no question there was bad intelligence on that front. >> i'm asking on the preponderance of the evidence. >> the preponderance of evidence was that there was something. that he likely had chemical and biological stockpiles left over from the 19 -- pre-persian gulf war period. but what took place in that run-up to the war was something very different. that sort of consensus judgment of the intelligence community, then got embellished, twisted, exaggerated and turned into something that turned into a completely false picture of a gathering threat, amassing weapons that were going to threaten us. the claims about connections with al qaeda and saddam
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hussein. totally wrong, totally -- plenty of evidence contradicting that. and when you took all that together, what took place, i think at the end of the day was really a very large deception of the american public. >> richard haass. >> i disagree, i read the intelligence, it wasn't a deception. >> you opposed the war from inside. go ahead, though. >> but the preponderance of the evidence was that they certainly had biological weapons, chemical for sure, we didn't know what they had in the nuclear space. i think what's important, though, not just the weapons of mass destruction. what drove the bush administration to go to war, something you said, after 9/11, coming back to the cheney story. zero propensity to run any doubt. and two other things, they wanted to send the world a message after 9/11, the united states was not a pitiful helpless giant. they wanted to do something. plus, the president had been sold a bill of goods by a lot of
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academics and people in the government. if we go into iraq, it's going to be a democracy very quickly, it's going to set an example that the rest of the region will not be able to resist emulating. people thought this was going to be george bush's transformational moment. he was going to make history. what is your sense in that? >> a lot of iraqis, frankly, don't care very much about the explanation and the excuses for the war. most iraqis -- not really reliable opinion. friends i asked said, okay, you came in and got rid of saddam hussein. so far, so good. it was the mistakes made after that. the mistakes that raviv chronicled in his book. that's what led to -- it needed to have been this way. the invasion could've happened and the narrative could've gone in off many different direction. >> i'd like to bring paul rieckhoff into this. i'm wondering what you're
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thinking listening to this conversation from your perspective. >> well, i was in baghdad with an infantry platoon, and needless to say, there were no shortage of surprises. and i think what i'm trying to focus on now and this week are the surprises that we have now coming home. the fact that 900,000 veterans are waiting for disability claims at the v.a. over 700,000 are waiting more than a year. and the obama administration, the number of disability claims waiting over a year has gone up by 2,000%. if you're in new york or los angeles or reno, you're waiting over 600 days for the care and benefits that you deserve. that's why i'm in washington this week and that's why many iraq and afghanistan veterans are in washington. >> say that again if you will, paul. we've heard this, the numbers are becoming more outrageous by the month. what's happening at the v.a. is an absolute disgrace. please talk about, again, how long are wounded warriors having
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to wait for treatment and care in america? >> well, one of them with me here in washington this week is zach mccowan, he's been waiting 900 days. the system is broken, thousands of veterans are stuck in it. and nobody's really paying attention. we need the president's attention on this now. he's ended the iraq war, but he can't end the v.a. paperwork backlog. right now 97% of v.a. disability claims are on paper. in the year 2013, 97% are still on paper. this is a story this week that really needs to be told. how the men and women have come home from iraq and afghanistan and deserve our support but are being denied it. >> there are efforts to help military families i believe headed up by dr. jill biden and michelle obama is that at all helping? what are we talking about here? >> it is helping. we've made progress around veterans unemployment, still too high. and we expect it will continue to go up with sequester now, with more and more people coming home. and i think that's been a good
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jump start. the first lady's brought a lot of corporate attention on the issue. but there are other issues, as well. we've got a sky high suicide rate that's really out of control and no one can seem to get a handle on it. almost every single one of the dozens of veterans here in washington personally knows someone who has committed suicide. we're losing more soldiers to suicide than we are to combat. these are the issues that the veterans community are focused on now. we're going to relitigate the war and go over the analysis in iraq, but we also need to understand what's going on on the ground in communities. >> great point. >> we can control what happens over the next ten years. and you've been a fierce defender of these mesh heroes for a decade now. thank you so much for that. >> thanks, guys. >> bob, you've written three books. judging george w. bush and this war. tell me what's your take away a decade later? >> first of all, we need to
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examine how this happened and exactly why. there were problems after the invasion, but was going to war the right decision? and i think so much of that is embedded in the personality of george bush as commander in cheer. chief. he decided on his own to do this. cheney was saying things to him like, hey, are you going to take this guy out or not? and that kind of prodding had an effect on bush. but bush always said he was himself impatient, fiery personality. at one point he told me i believe we have a duty to free people. that's a very expansive view of what the united states should do. should we go around and free everyone who is oppressed? i think that was a driver for bush. i think richard haass is so
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right, the process was not intense enough. that if they had just kind of said, hey, look, we are making a major step in decision here. we're committing the united states. i mean, my god, ten years, let's really be careful. and there was no that kind of care. and i think paul's absolutely right. it's shameful that the country in a way has turned -- and the government has turned its back on these veterans who our country sent into this war. >> yeah. rajiv, we now look at afghanistan. where it seems like we've repeated a lot of the same mistakes. we made a decision three years ago to triple the number of troops. and change that war from a war against terror to a war to rebuild the country. an antiinsurgency war and that
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seemed to have failed, as well. >> we took the wrong lessons from iraq. the surge improved security in baghdad, but didn't lead to that compromise that was supposed to be part of it. our surge there, bigger than the baghdad surge was predicated on the -- on hamid karzai acting as partner with us. he's been far from a partner. we only need to look at the most recent comments accusing the united states of being in league with the taliban to convince afghans we want to stay there in perpetui perpetuity. crazy stuff like that. this is the guy we're trying to work with to stabilize that country. and we're spending more money on reconstruction there. what did we learn from iraq? and it's staggering how we continue now in afghanistan. it's the longest war in our nation's history. and, you know, we still have 60,000 troops there. we're going to keep a presence there after 2014. you know, the military would
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love to see, you know, 13,000 american troops there sort of in perpetuity. all for the sake of this corrupt government. but, joe, let me build on one thing that paul rieckhoff said. we came together, the military came together and got as our troops were being blown apart by these road side bombs, we had a massive effort to build these massive trucks. we got them to our soldiers. we need a similar mobilization like that for the veterans administration for those who are back here. the obama administration has done with great stuff for veterans, employment issues, families, but when it comes to basic health care and treatment for these veterans, some of whom who haven't had their post-traumatic stress even diagnosed, we need a much larger initiative here. >> no doubt about it. michael isikoff, the final word. >> if there's any take away from
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all of this, it's -- and this is relative to what's going on today within the obama administration is the need for continued scrutiny of intelligence. the -- you know, secret intelligence has such an aura and mystique around this town and members of the press are so willing to accept it as gospel when we've learned time and time again how flawed it can be, how sketchy it can be. and i think, you know, when we -- whether it's decision to invade iraq or decision about drone strikes that might target u.s. citizens, or others. how well do we really know? how much can we rely on the claims from the intelligence community and the need to continually ask questions about it. >> all right. michael isikoff and paul rieckh
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off, thank you so much. >> based on michael's book, reairs this friday at 9:00 on nbc. michael ghosh -- >> did you say that right? because that's how i told her to say it. >> last time you fought the pronunciation off on willie. >> willie, willie, please, my good friend rajiv. >> and "little america" the war within the war for afghanistan. bob woodward, thank you, as well. >> thank you, bob. so much. we appreciate it. coming up, kelly o'donnell l live in charleston, north carolina. where voters will decide if they want to put mark sanford back on the ballot. plus, hillary clinton fuels 2016 speculation with a new video released yesterday that's sure to please many in the democratic base. it's not just fueling
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speculation -- >> she just -- >> what? she's running, but she wanted just in case people came up to her and didn't know what her position was -- she wanted to clarify. >> if anyone needs the answer to the question, she is. thank you, we'll be right back.
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i've cut spending, reduced debt and made government more accountable. more recently, i've experienced how none of us go through life without mistakes. but in their wake, we can learn about grace, a god of second chances and be the better for it. in that light, i humbly step forward and ask for your help in changing washington. i'm sorry for all the mistakes i've made. sugar, just give me one more chance. >> break up with career politicians, the right guy, teddy turner, conservative
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republican, economics teacher, not politician. >> wow. today's primary day in south carolina where 18 republican candidates -- >> 18. >> that's a lot. including governor mark sanford are competing for the see vacated by now senator tim scott. a lot of different types of candidates. >> a lot of types of candidates, but mark sanford doing very well. he's, i think, most political observers say he's going to win the primary and then he'll go into a runoff. >> ill tell you what, you know, there's so much talk about the personal stuff and that guy lashing out. i think that was ted turner's son. but if you think about what washington needs right now and you look at his record, it's -- i don't know. >> i tell you what, mark sanford on the issues -- >> on the issues. >> a man in his time. >> exactly. >> he has spent -- >> i guess that's what i was trying to say. >> he's spent his entire adult life focused on the things we're
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actually talking about right now when it comes to the debt and the deficit. and he's going to be the punch line of a lot of jokes. and a lot of people that -- a lot of people going to make fun of him. but mark haleprin, in these congressional races, especially in primaries, you win it person to person, handshake to handshake and everything i've heard out of south carolina is -- and i've heard a lot out of south carolina from a lot of friends down there is that this guy is doing all the right things. he's contrite, and voters like him. >> the reason he was talked about as a presidential candidate not that long ago, he's great on policy and he's great at grass roots politicking. runoffs are always a little bit tricky and potentially combustible. he'll make the runoff. question is who he'll run against. given the district, his strength, how hard he's worked, likely to become a congressman. >> i agree with mark, i believe in second chances in life and redemption and he's getting one
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and he seems to be making the best of it. >> he certainly is. here with us from charleston, south carolina, she's covering the story, nbc news capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell. what are you hearing on the ground there? >> reporter: well, we've spent some time, mika, joe, and everybody talking with voters and out with the candidates. it is 16 republicans, two democrats in the race. it is a lot of candidates. and voters we've talked to said they've been bowled over by the number of ads. and being here for a few days now, every local spot available on tv has been a campaign ad. something they didn't live through during the presidential season because south carolina wasn't in play. i spent a lot of time going campaign event to campaign event with mark sanford and i have been struck by the warm reception of people meeting him. he talked to us at great length about his own apprehension of putting his name in the ring and having to go out and meet people face-to-face. dropped out of life for about a year after the affair that led
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to his public embarrassment and all of the problems at the end of his term as governor. and he really says he has changed a lot and has been struck by people who meet him talk about some of their own life experiences. so he says he's connecting with voters in a way that he had never done before when he was all about sort of being a fiscal conservative and a numbers guy. now, some of the other candidates say they have been serving in local office, haven't had any scandal. they have been honorable public servants, and it should be their turn. and we also spent time with elizabeth colbert who is the sister of stephen colbert, and she's a businesswoman who's been in this community for a long time. she's likely, people here say, to get the democratic nomination. and so it would be whoever this republican is against colbert/bush, presumably. with 16 republicans, not likely anyone would get above 50%. the big question is sanford and who?
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and it's a crowded field, but it's been fascinating to get to know these candidates, an interesting race to watch. >> it is. kelly o'donnell live from charleston, south carolina, thank you so much. another story in the news today, there are new signs of the country's growing acceptance of same sex marriage. a new abc news/washington post poll shows it's at an all-time high. 58% of americans believe it should be legal. >> lgbt americans are our colleagues, our teachers, our soldiers, our friends, our loved ones. and they are full and equal citizens and deserve the rights of citizenship. that includes marriage. that's why i support marriage for lesbian and gay couples. i support it personally and as a matter of policy and law. >> see that's good because you
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know, now when she walks to the county store, people won't have to ask where do you stand on gay marriage? this has been taken care of. good thing she did that youtube video to get that out of the way. >> i'm a supporter of same-sex marriage, i'm glad she did it. >> come on, harold. >> and she's running. >> that's it. number three. and she's running. >> wait, why -- >> she looks tan, rested, and ready. that didn't take long. that did not take long. >> running and getting that issue out of the way. >> she is -- >> as early as possible. >> she is great, is she not. she's great. >> pro. >> she's a pro. >> three letters, pro. p-r-o. >> i wanted a whole year of is she or isn't she. and that erased it. she stamped it out. ruined it for me. she's running. i'm happy, i love her. she could've kept us waiting a little longer. >> it is interesting how attitudes on issues change. five years ago, this issue the
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way it was treated politically and now it just shows how thinking across this country can change very quickly about an issue. >> in 2004, carl rove's strategy was get as many initiatives on ballots in swing states as possible to drive the conservative vote up. that would not have worked in 2012. >> when i ran for senate, it was on the ballot, the initiative around marriage equality was on the ballot. i'm one of those people who changed their mind. >> no doubt it changed as fast as anything in my career as i've seen, but tens of millions of americans who oppose gay marriage and so -- >> she's getting it out of the way now. >> you have to navigate it carefully if you're a republican. >> listen, we see the polls and see they're 58% and a lot of supporters of gay marriage will say that's great. all you had to do is look and see how long it took barack obama to support gay marriage and see that the only way he got there was by joe biden dragging
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him over that finish line. that's the only reason why barack obama came out in support of gay marriage before the election. >> okay. >> and -- no, i'm just saying, the fact that you have a progressive president that took his time, took as long as he took four years in before he made a decision. shows, this is not an open and shut issue politically nationally. >> look at senator portman. >> yeah. look at rob portman. how is that playing in ohio? >> first of all -- >> playing fine for him in ohio and because he is so well liked within the party, his support is just a huge development because except for a few people on the far, far right who oppose gay marriage out of principle, people have expressed a lot of respect for him, appreciation for his personal situation. >> by the way, there are people in the middle -- let's say, there are people in the middle. they're good catholics,
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evangelicals. orthodox jews that oppose gay marriage. you can't just say people on the far right oppose gay marriage. you should have people across the spectrum. political spectrum that still oppose gay marriage. rob portman's development, though, is fascinating. >> it is. i wonder if it played a role in his -- in mitt romney's campaign. i think it might have. next week, the supreme court will consider a challenge to laws that outlaw same-sex marriage. >> actually, i don't think it did. i don't think the romney team wanted to win ohio. >> the woman running -- >> if they'd selected rob portman, they'd win ohio. who wants to win ohio? >> just 1 of 50. >> too constructive. >> ran this selection process, not only said it didn't play a role, but she herself has come out in support of gay marriage. >> who? >> beth myers who ran the selection process. >> but she didn't make the decisions, ran the process.
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>> she was influential. >> all right. coming up on "morning joe." i'm just telling you -- >> what are you telling us? >> shortsightedness ran that campaign and that would have been it. >> and where can i meet them? >> he's over there with samsung. the end of power players, how the little guys are making waves on the global stage. so let's break down this play. charles?
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uh, charles couldn't make it. his single miles card blacked him out here and here. he should have used... the capital one venture card. he's coming to us from home. hey fellas... hey baby, you want mama to iron your undies? nice tightie whities. i didn't know mrs. barkley made quilts. really? looks like a circus tent. is that the best you got? now if you put this, with this, you have a sailboat. what's in your wallet? to get her oven baked taste straight from the microwave.
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enough already. uncle, mercy. snow continues this morning in many areas of new england over 500 schools have been canceled, many others on delay. auburn, maine, the snow is beginning and won't stop until later on tonight. you could end up with a foot of snow. already reports of 6 inches near logan airport. we're not having as many delays out there. 1-hour delays out of laguardia, philadelphia airport reporting 45 minute delays. no problems at dulles or baltimore international. as far as the snow goes, a lot of it has fallen from the mass pike south wards. now we're going to get into freezing drizzle. the heavier snows are going to
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shift north wards. up through the white and green mountains, a lot in vermont and new hampshire. even if you're getting a break, you're filling back in. you're cold enough there to get snow. it's going to be a warm, mild day, a lot of snow that fell around new york will melt by the end of today and no one in d.c. will be complaining, 56 degrees will actually feel nice. and take a look at the midwest this morning, you think the snow was bad in new england, i dare that groundhog to stick its head out of its hole in minneapolis. minus 8 windchill, fargo at minus 18, and chicago, your windchill is 2, st. louis at 26. this winter just won't give up. we could even see some snow three days from now throughout the midwest. heading for the east coast. and east coast, the next chance of any big storm looks like to be about monday. that's the chance of the next coastal storm would be. and looks like not until after easter we put away our winter coats. >> it's not your fault. >> i feel like it is. >> yeah, well, good.
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up next, republicans try and remake the brand. but already there's some backlash within the party. politico's john martin joins us next. we'll be right back. mallon brothers magic? watch this -- alakazam! ♪ [ male announcer ] staples has always made getting office supplies easy.
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our principles are not old rusty thoughts the way we communicate our principles isn't resinating widely enough. focus groups described our party as narrow minded, out of touch, and, quote, stuffy old men. >> okay. that was rnc chair reince priebus. jonathan martin explains that not everybody in the gop is on board. he writes, quote, the five-member panel urges having the number of presidential primary debates in 2016 from 2012 creating a regional primary cluster after the traditional early states are holding primaries rather than caucuses or conventions. reaction was swift. allies of potential 2016 hopefuls, senator rand paul and former senator rick santorum sensing a power play by the establishment dominated panel
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reacted angrily to recommendations they think are aimed at hurting candidates who do well in caucuses and conventions and need debates to get attention. an adviser to rand paul was quoted as saying elimination of caucuses would mean nuclear war with the grass roots, social conservatives, and paul movement. and joining us now from washington, politico senior writer jonathan martin. jonathan? >> nuclear war. that sounds intense. >> the problem is, they need to actually come together. >> you mean we're actually going to let the person that gets the most votes in a ballot box win? >> yeah. and they actually don't want this sort of cannibalism and infighting and circus. at least some of them don't. others do. >> jonathan, what's going on within the party? >> so, first of all, it's important to keep in mind what the rnc can and can't do. there's much talk about the policy issues and of course, policy is what drives politics. but keep in mind, the rnc has little say over policy.
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what the rnc can do is dictate the rules of the next campaign. and that's where they're really relevant and that's why i thought that was the most important part of this report. what they're trying to do is essentially shorten the primary next time around and in effect while making it easier for the most well financed candidate to win. fewer debates, a regional cluster of primaries taking place in a very confined time period which means the candidate that has tv ads is going to do the best. and then lastly, primaries rather caucuses, all three of those things benefit a well-financed candidate. and if you're a grass roots conservative or a rand paul type campaign and you do well on conventions and see those kind of rules, then you scream. and that's what you're seeing here and to me this captures something bigger in the party and a lot of the grass roots folks see the establishment trying to assert control of the party and take it over and they're not happy about it. >> let's go to the most inside of inside baseball. what are the motives of the people at the rnc. are there motives to try to keep
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somebody for rand paul or rick santorum from winning? are there others that have the byproduct of helping the most established best financed candidates? >> well, look, i don't think if you surveyed the five members of this you survey the committee mark, i don't think they are targeting him. i think the picture point that leaves the nominee unscathed. they are changing the rules to apply for an open race in 2016 when there is not going to be an incumbent president. one of the things that hurt romney is he had a primary and president obama fund raised and launched a campaign with no primary of his own. these rules will apply more to that paradigm than an open seat
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race. >> this seems like an easy and fun conversation for democrats to be having this morning and this is the way to look at this. what's the sense with senate and house republicans that you need to reduce the number of debates and allow the people who gets the most votes. the debate process is more. how does that play with the capitol hill republicans? >> i think the congressional party would prefer a cleaner primary, harold. someone who spends two, 2 1/2 months in may. that would be fine with the congressional wing of the party. they don't have a long knock down drag em out party. 2016 could seat best feel of republican candidates in a long tile. you want a good robust campaign.
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you will have what looks like a strong field of candidates. that cleared the field early, but it could be in the party's best interest to have a decent primary. >> thank you very much. tomorrow "morning joe" tom brocaw will be here with haley barbour. msnbc's alex wagner. "morning joe" is brewed by starbucks. as your life and career change, fidelity is there for your personal economy, helping you readjust your retirement plan along the way. rethink how you're invested. and refocus as your career moves forward.
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good morning. it's 8:00 on the east coast and of a:00 on the west coast. we have mark pal person and richard hoss. david ig neighbors and elizabeth miller. there fresh polls out showing there is very little support for leaders in washington to boast about. 47% of americans approve of the job president obama is doing mom paired to 50% dis, prove. his rating dropped 15 percentage points since january. despite recent outreach to
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republicans, 57% believe the president is not doing enough to cooperate and 70% thinking the gop is not reaching out. as far as the budget, 31% approve the way the president supports the way the money is being spent and when asked whose approach is better, 47% sided with the president and 46% sided with republicans and i wonder, joe, if this is at least inspiration enough for them to just get it. is anyone going to get worse than this? why can't they get something done? >> the pressure is more on the president for this reason. i found that everybody hated lawyers. but everybody loves their own lawyer. all lawyers are terrible, but my
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lawyer, you should have seen what she did in court. let me give you my lawyer's number. the same with congress men. everybody hates congress men, but my guy or woman, they fight. you have to put yourself in the position of 31% approval rating. i'm at 74%. the words of dire straights, get a daytime job and doing all right. look at the pressure a little more on the president. this is a president who wants a legacy and thinks he deserves a legacy and it's horrible for republicans as well. they are facing the prospects of these numbers and not controlling the house a year and a half from now. >> the pressure is on him and you said legacy. if he doesn't get stuff done in 2013, it's hard to see momentum on domestic policy getting stuff done after that. >> unless they take over the
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house. >> it's hard to see unless they have success in the next few months. i think they have done a great job in teeing things up. they moved along on guns and immigration and the budget stuff, but now he has to perform. republicans have a choice. will they give the president a major deficit reduction victory or not. if they believe that needs to be done and the president puts something on the table to get them to significant entitlement reform, they have to do it. >> i think the possibility of deals and immigration, the possibility of deals on guns and the possibility of deals on the budget and the long-term debt, i think the possibilities -- excuse me for being optimistic -- are good on all fronts. republicans daily are holding press conferences swinging their hands and trying to figure out how to save their party. the president is at 47%, pretty
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damn good considering everything. he wants a legacy. he doesn't just want to talk about the first two years. >> i agree. the prospects for progress on immigration and gun control or gun regulation comes about if we get progress on the budget and the debt. if the economy remains strong, it's easier to win. if the economy hobbles along, the markets are roaring with a few days slower. the average american, the middle class family, how well are they doing and how confident are they? the prospects for immigration reform i don't believe are nearly as high if you don't get what mark has been saying. the sequencing done right on this spending cuts and tax reform. things sound great and you are moving along, but you will have democrats and senate races
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across the country and key congressional races that slow down and say i want immigration and guns, but will we do about the economy and debt and tax reform? >> richard, you can only push people so far. not the republicans's best friend this weekend. democrats, you are about to lose me. you are talking about raising taxes. i pay 40% federal and 15%. i hear we have it queued up. this is bill maher. >> i saw the statistics. like 70%. here in california i just want to say liberals, you could lose me. it's outrageous what we are paying. over 50%. i'm willing to pay my share, but it's ridiculous. >> not only that, but people like bill maher and new jersey
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over 50%. why is a republican sitting at 50% approval rating. you can only tax people. on top of that for democrats to go around saying when bill mmaher to say the rich are not paying their fair share. both sides have to figure out how to moderate. >> absolutely. after the $600 billion tax increase, the rate increases on top of state and local taxes. for most people in high brackets, it's well above 50%. we are done with the tax part and it's closing the so-called tax expenditures and we will do the charitable donations for wealthy people. you have to start talking about
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growth. whichever side really gets serious about growth, there is one or two positive things. one is energy transformation. that is exciting and made it more competitive. the president never did anything serious about trade. right now we are on the verge of starting two major trade negotiations. one is the transpacific negotiations and the others will start a u.s.-european negotiations. this involves something like 60 or 70%. this is potentially a major energy if you can get serious about trade and help a lot to compensate the drag that has been introduced by the sequester. >> it has been so narrow. it's tax increases or the president might immediately approve the keystone pipeline. it might be more dangerous what we are doing transporting frayed
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and shipping to, prove natural gas exports. they will not have negative impacts on u.s. manufacturing growth in the middle of the country. do it now. stop talking only about it in these terms. the country is agreeing in many ways and if we trade another prime example, it would change the psychy in congress and get people more courage to make big decisions and the things you have written about. >> we want to mark another important anniversary and officials have news to go with it. at least 56 people were killed this morning in explosions across iraq. that's exactly ten years after then president bush announced the u.s. invasion. most of today's attacks were car bombings around baghdad and one near narnlg government offices. we are still getting information on that in terms of casualties and injuries. we have david ig neighbors from
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"the washington post." ten years later, where are we? >> it's a difficult anniversary. no one remember this is fondly at all. the iraqis don't remember it well. they are not marking this anniversary at all. the war changed the way the united states thinks about war. look at how reluctant the president is right now to intervene in syria. look at how reluctant syria was to intervene in libya and how long the wars lasted because of what happened in iraq. we are in a sober place right now and we have to remember the nearly 5,000 men and women killed in uniform as a result of this war. >> david ig neighbors, remember the generals are always fighting the last war despite having ten years of hell behind us doesn't
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help us as we look at the threats moving forward with iran. did we learn the wrong lessons. as elizabeth said, 70,000 dead in syria. david was talking about it the other day on this show. did we learn the wrong lessons from iraq? >> i don't think so in this sense. i think the united states discovered in iraq so painfully when you knock it out of an authoritative regime, what flows from that flows into that space is not democracy and self governments and the things that americans hoped for. reversion to the most basic loyalties and identifications that people have. of sect and tribe and region. so iraq in a sense was thrown
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back into the past by our invasion and not into the future. >> can i ask you an uncomfortable question? it's a question that i woke up thinking about today ten years later. are iraqis better off and would they be better off than saddam hussein. >> saddam was a monster. he was governed by torture and would never wish any people to be governed by him in the future. iraqis are in the stream of their development as a modern country. they sure are happy with us. as you look at the story, you have to say the great beneficiaries of iraq were it is iranians. they were trying to do that and failed. we achieved it. iran is much more powerful and has a louis ruling over the
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iraqi government. one thing the americans can hold on to with pride after what most people would agree was a mistake in invading iraq in 2003. we stayed the course long enough to restabilize the country, a courageous decision by president bush, but he stayed there on the ground and he was aided by general petraeus. whatever happened later in general petraeus's career didn't change that. >> unbelievable. you can count the thousands or tens of thousands of iraqis who are alive because the country didn't keep zooming off towards civil war. >> richard engle a couple of years ago was asked what was going on in iraq and asked him what he thought about and he said not much. the statutes of david petraeus
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would be put up in every square if they had the chance. >> turkey is the economic winner of the iraq war. the americans won the war and the iranians won the peace and the turks won the contracts. with iraq's kurdish region seeking to reduce its dependence on baghdad. it may move to another level and tensions are increasing over plans to invest in the northern iraqi energy sector, prime minister maliki said that agreement would be unconstitutional. look at the winners and losers overall and looking back, how do we assess our decisions and some were so flawed anyway. >> history i think will be between critical and brutal. to use the language i introduced, this was a war of choice. it was ill-advise and poorly implemented. david is right.
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iran is the principal strategic beneficiary. saddam hussein is gone and production is up and violence is the staple. it reinforced the sunni-shia divide. you can trace it back to what we saw in iraq. united states is the big loser. the united states is the 4400 american who is died. more than 30,000 american casualties. the direct immediate cost of the car were well over $1 trillion. we have all the lost productivity. if you add it up, it's $2-3 trillion. the idea that we took so much of our situation after the end of the cold war and we devoted it to iraq given everything else we could have should have done will scratch their heads and say why did the united states get so district and distorted. >> and stayed there. >> that's the big lesson.
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we should draw from this. we have to respect local realities. the united states cannot go around the middle east and remake it in our liking. we have to have a degree of hume ility about the limits of our influence. >> coming up, bill clinton said his book will change the way you read the news. the author of the end of power is back. >> this guy is great. >> senate republicans sit down with paul ryan to talk budget. the senator john barrasso joins us next and here's a check on the forecast. bill? >> no comment from you? you sed it up. good morning, everyone. snow has been falling in areas of new england and now we are getting a break especially from about massachusetts, connecticut and rhode island southward. the roads are improving.
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we are mostly confined to heavy snow and northwards. we are fill it in in vermont and new hampshire. it's cold newscast boston area. we will begin to end from here. airport delays not too bad. philadelphia 45 and that's about it. a lot of places were canceled. almost worse than the snow this morning are the wind chills here from further to the minneapolis area. indianapolis shouldn't have a wind chill of 12 this time of year. this is warm and beautiful mid-to late march and they have brutal wind chills. the cold is from the northern half of the country to canada and that continued to 32 in chicago. orlando and miami. a i lot of people ask me when will this end and warm up? this takes us through the next seven days. even this sunday, the northern plains are cold and new england with a warm up in the ohio
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valley. i don't think we will see a warm up probably until easter weekend across much of the northern half of the country. you have to wait until april. we leave you with auburn, maine. you expect this. the rest of us, we didn't. we didn't want it either. you are watching "morning joe," brewed by starbucks. ♪ [ construction sounds ] ♪ [ watch ticking ] [ engine revs ] come in. ♪ got the coffee. that was fast. we're outta here. ♪ [ engine revs ] ♪
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. >> i think it's important to find 75 years for the american people in terms of medicare and social security so people can stop worrying not just for the people currently on the programs, but really for the next generations to come. i worry about this incredible debt not in terms of balancing the budget for getting the numbers right, but what it means for american families. families know you have to live within your means and better things for the family. we continue to spend more and more than we take in each year, we have to stop spending money we don't have. that will be part of it. getting to a balanced budget and a democrat-balanced budget never balances. >> if he can get all the things he wants and you want except additional revenue. are you willing to cent a dell
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that gets you that? >> as far as tax reform where you lower the rates and increased revenue comes out as a result of economic growth. i'm trying to grow the economy. the democrats are trying to grow government. >> senator, we have a major trade organization in asia. do you think the president could get bipartisan support in the senate and beyond for trade agreement? >> i would like to see that. i was in germany with vice president biden meeting with the germans on this issue of european trade. i think it's important and helps our country significantly and i would like to work with the president to accomplish that. >> you probably would have the requisite bipartisan support from his owner party which has always been the issue. >> that's the issue. he would have bipartisan system and i would encourage democrats to join us. >> let's talk about how we get to where we get.
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obviously you look at democratic bills and the republican bill and they differ in many areas, but there is has been a focus on cutting discretionary spending instead of the long-term problems with medicare and medicaid and social security. do you think the republicans in the senate are going to be willing to look at a long-term overhaul of medicare and medicaid and social security and make tough decisions that have to be made to save those programs? >> i think we do, joe. they do budgeting and a 10-year window. we need to make sure the programs are on a sustainable path for 75 years. that's the only thing we give credibility to it overall. medicare and social security are the tidal waves on our country's
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future. we have an aging society, 10,000 baby boomers every day are turning 65. when they were put into place, people were not expected to live to 65. for women it's 81 and men it's 75. we need to modernize to save them for the future generations and make sure people currently on them have the benefits for the rest of their lives. >> a lot of debates within the party from the rnc's commission and changes to make, i want to ask you about some of them that impacts your states in the region of the country. they are proposing fewer caucus us and conventions and more primaries. do you think more primaries are better for the party and get rid of caucuses and conventions? >> i don't know the answer to that, but it's important to be honest with ourselves as a party and honest with the american people in what we found. we need to do a better job than we have done in the past to talk
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about why policies are good for the american families. people want to know what's in it for them. the president won because many more people believed he was for people like them than the republican nominee. i want to do what 30 governors are doing around the country. listening to people in their states and coming up with things that affect the quality of and work to keep more dollars in the pockets of hardworking americans. >> always great talking to you. thanks for being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> coming up next from board rooms to battlefields, we examine shifting power structures around the world. this is a great book talking about disruption. you talk about the law of unintended consequences. >> important message. >> it is. we will talk about that when we return to "morning joe." [ male announcer ] when it comes to the financial obstacles
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. you are looking live. >> another solicitor general who wrote that? that's fascinating. >> show we are longer than three hours.
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>> joining us now from washington, the former executive director for work world and scholar for the carnegie endowment. we asked him to talk about his new book, the end of power. why being in charge is not what it used to be. when we had you on recently we talked about political power and the decline in power around the world. what about corporate power structures. are they seeing a shift as well. >> thank you for having me again. ed this morning. >> the same is happening in the corporate world. the company that is at the top of the sector will fallout of that. it doubled in the last 20 years. tell us how ruthless the market is. >> there is a very interesting
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example and kodak had a mow nopnop ly and film and they went bankrupt. a small ap called instagram with 13 employees at two years old was sold for $1 billion. that gives you a sense that today competition will come from places that are unimaginable. >> there companies that did not respond correctly. >> ibm is a remarkable example that did survive the changes. >> one of the essential tochl tenses to establish them as very
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specialized. to be very good you have to be very specialized and that creates a tunnel vision that doesn't let you see what's going on around you. as i said, competition doesn't come from the traditional competitors. the "new york times" could never imagine that the main competitor that would enroll the business model would come from craigslist or google. competitors that take away the customers come from the more unprobable and unexpected places and it's important to have peripheral vision while being good and highly specialized at what you do. >> i hope that the end of power does not apply to the heads of research. why don't you say something about what it means for the state of the world. is the message of your book that we are more likely than not to enter an era of greater disorder or chaos. the sources of power won't work.
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>> right. that's a great question. what is happening here, there is a lot to celebrate about this. many good things. more competition and tyrants have a harder time with power and monopolies are also have a hard time. there more opportunities for consumers and voters and activists. there is a lot of good things that come from the dedication of power. there is a downside. the greed with governments and inability to make decisions in a time leeway. the need to find the common denominator. to block and veto and undermine and no one has enough power. that create creates a very traj il democracy. that's very, very bad. >> speaking of tyrants who lost power. you used to be a minster in the
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government of venezuela. they are out of power. what do you see as the future of that country. it has been dependent on the oil exports. >> it's important when things of venezuela, it's a government with a lot of oil money that it controls. it was very imperfect, but there were elections and competition and the opposition could win power. there was an element of checks and balances. that is all gone. we have a political grouping that is president chavez before and the successors that have taken hold of power. we know they have the states of governments, they control the
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army and intelligence services and they are capable of distributing a lot of handouts to the people. >> their power is not going to end any time soon? >> except that they are far more -- being a tyrant these days is nots good as it was before. remember the tyrants used to end when they were ousted. they used to end their lives in europe. in the french riviera. now they end in europe in front of the tribunal. it's a different world these days. >> outside of the g20, what smaller countries are poised to take advantage? >> many. you have seen a lot of opportunities for some countries that come out of nowhere and play a role. a couple of years ago we
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discovered that brazil who never had anything to say or any roll to play in the nuclear arms negotiations with iran, then president garcia will be here and i want to participate in this process. he got with turkey and intervening the process with the traditional powers. the members of the security council and the united states and others. negotiating with iran. that was the traditional way. huh the new players saying we want to sit the the table and see it. >> the end of power. thanks again. good to have you back. >> thank you. >> up next. >> and great book. you read it. >> this captures the diffusion of power that we are seeing. it will make it harder to govern.
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>> history will remember iraq as bush's war. he didn't go it alone. on this tenth anniversary, we will take a trip down memory lane. some of the war's most outspoken cheerleaders. we'll be right back.
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building blocks for the heart of your portfolio. find out why 9 out of 10 large professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. ishares by blackrock. call 1-800-ishares for a prospectus which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. read and consider it carefully before investing. risk includes possible loss of principal. we have been talking a lot about the lessons learned from the war in iraq. on this 10-year anniversary, among the takeaways, it was a lot easier for some members of congress to support the conflict before they were against it. >> there is an old saying that victory has a hundred fathers. >> so said president john f. kennedy after the bay of pigs operation in 1961. over 50 years later, the iraq
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war is now such an orphan. make no mistake about it, the iraq war belongs to president and history shows that the bush white house was more focused on justifying the war than showing the type of cautious our troops deserve before being sent to fight in a foreign land. but george w. bush was far from being the only politician in washington claiming paternity for that decision. in fact, the very same people who spent years beating up george bush were the very ones beating the drum for iraq's regime change and saddam hussein's ouster. >> we need to disarm saddam hussein. he is a brutal murderous dictator leading an oppressive regime. >> the invasion of iraq was a profound diversion from the battle against our greatest enemy, al qaeda.
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the president's misjudgment, miscalculation, and mismanagement of the war in iraq make the war on terror harder to win. >> i applaud the president on folk youing on this issue and on taking the lead to disarm saddam hussein. >> we would be much safer today if president kept his focus on al qaeda rather than the war on terror in afghanistan to a war of choice in iraq. this war has been a grotesque mistake. >> saddam hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons. >> despite the evidence, president bush is determined to continue his failed policy in iraq until he leaves office. >> we should be hell bent of getting weapons of mass destruction and the approach this them, but try to do it in a
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way that keeps the worlding to and achieves our goal which is moving to saddam. >> we want to change the president's course and leading to defeat. the president's course is getting us deeper and deeper militarily. he never would have gone there to begin with. >> it wasn't just the politician who is fuelled the foo% support the war had 2003. the times warned the threat posed by iraq in the final years of the clinton administration and on the eve of president bush's first inauguration, "the washington post" called iraq's weapons program the greatest threat facing the new president. victory has 100 fathers, but defeat is an orphan. on the day that president bush went around the uss abraham lincoln in his flight constitute declare victory, republicans and democrats alike were lining up with papers to prove their
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paternity. how short or memory is. >> well done. richard haas, you tend to remember things the way you want to remember them in the last sound byte. this crystallize where key players felt at the beginning of the war versus the end. >> nothing changes between the official judgment and the latter. people thought there were weapons of mass destruction. we go into this country with few soldiers and we make it and months later we leave behind the federalist papers and translation, it showed a mixture of both arrogance and ignorance. it ut to be a rule before the united states goes to war, we ought to know basic facts about the history and culture and society. we didn't know the basics. it's tragic for this country and the soldiers to bear the brunt of that. i hope we learned a lesson.
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the only thing that is frightening is it doesn't seem like we learned the lesson of how we need to just be careful before we launch these wars. >> we don't even remember the package that our team gathered. they did a great job of illustrating. we don't remember our history that the top democratic leaders and the second things turned bad were cheerleading right out front and looking at the same conclusions and then turning and pointing fingers, acting as if they had nothing to do with it. >> and animated by the aftermath of september 11. >> stunning to me how much more support there was for the second iraq war than the gulf war 20 years ago. >> people don't remember that, but the second gulf war had more support from democrats and the public than the first gulf war.
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>> saddam hussein invaded kuwait, that was a close run thing getting it through the senate. this was the-sided vote. >> there were a lot of people who wanted to pretend this war was an orphan. we'll be right back. ♪ just one bite opens a world of delight... ♪ a flavor paradise of delicious fishes ♪ ♪ friskies seafood sensations. ♪ ♪ feed the senses. governor of getting it done. you know how to dance... with a deadline. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. this is awesome. [ male announcer ] yes, it is, business pro.
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>> ovation of the night. >> but make no mistake, al qaeda is very much alive. >> time now for business with the bell. ryan in. >> good morning, everybody. listen. a couple of things here. yesterday we talked about the fear and the futures were down. we almost ended the day higher yesterday and looked like we will be higher again today. how quickly the market forgets and as we discussed, capital will flow here because we are the cleanest dirty shirt in the bag of laundry. helped by housing data and housing starts. >> where do you get that one? the cleanest dirty shirt in a bag of laundry.
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you could just say what i say. the tallest building in schenectady. the tallest building in el mira. >> stlar a-mile long dirt track. >> you know about that in new york? >> i race cars. the modified search. >> fantastic. >> finish your story. >> tears man. what's going on? >> you know how apple is rumored to come out with an i watch? samsung may also be coming out to compete with the yet out to the market. now companies are outrumoring each other. that's how thick conversation is. they will never get along. >> they will never get along.
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what are these google glasses? is this driving the stock in what's the big deal? >> two things. it's a side project. glasses are expensive and only the uber skinny jean-wearing wealthy hibster is wearing these things. >> you just said it. >> i don't like them. what is to prevent google when everything you look at is what you search on the web? joe scarborough high school photo. i don't want people to know what i'm looking at. >> something doesn't seem right. for the first time in history, burger king -- high school in new york. >> i'm reading a story that's important. burger king will offer a turkey burger. >> i love it.
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>> the whole thing is ridiculous and will tell you why. it's health conscious. the new sandwich is 530 calories. it's opposed to the 630 calories for the whopper. you are not gaining much there. it has as much salt. >> look at this. >> i just want to say -- >> that's some hair. go ahead. >> as a virginia tech hokey, i am morally opposed to eating turkey. it is a noble beast. ben franklin wanted to make it the bird of america and the eagle won out. we should have gone with the turkey. >> you are a strange man and i love you. thank you. we learned. we didn't know this photo existed. >> he just walked away. i was going to thank him. he just left. he's gone.
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